Instruction

The Instruction Department works closely with school sites to ensure that the highest quality curriculum, instructional materials, learning environments and professional learning opportunities are provided.

Guiding Practices and Instructional Focus Areas

Our work below is in support of the five strategic goals outlined in the district strategic plan.

All learners, at every level of our organization matter.

Beliefs

We believe that we all have the responsibility to ensure that ALL STUDENTS experience a learning environment to reach our goal of preparing career and college ready students.

We believe that using the best practices around shared leadership, growth mindset, professional collaboration are the best way to achieve measurable growth of student achievement and reach our goal of preparing career and college ready students.

We believe that assessment should serve to provide immediate feedback to support student learning and classroom instruction. Assessment data serves to improve practice.

We believe in a learning environment that fosters innovation and risk-taking.

Instructional Focus Areas

Implementation of new ELA/ELD materials with on going professional development and collaboration time.

Continued work around the transition to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), including on-going work to support STEM classrooms and Makerspaces.

Re-define the role and best uses of CAASPP, interim, and formative assessments to evaluate student academic growth.

Educational Technology integration professional development and coaching to transcend the traditional learning environment.

Instructional Materials

The Evergreen School District's Induction program is a two-year program created by SB 2042 providing opportunities for teachers new to the profession to develop individual plans for growth while clearing their preliminary credentials. Our approved program provides new teachers with mentors, information and non-evaluative assessment opportunities in order to empower future generations of educators in developing habits of personalized professional development.

The Evergreen Induction program respects this experience, and utilizes the preliminary credential portfolio as a basis for developing individual growth plans. Our formative assessment structure guides new teachers and their mentors through a series of reflective, evidence-based, student-centered activities in order to allow new teachers to customize their experiences to meet their own needs/interests.

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 mandates that school districts develop a Local Educational Agency Plan (LEA Plan) [as a requirement for receiving federal funding for Under No Child Left Behind (NCLB)]. The plan is required to summarize the actions the schools and district will take to ensure that the program requirements of NCLB are met and that all students are achieving.

STATE ASSESSMENT

California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP)

District Assessment Window 4/9/18-5/25/18 (Subject to Change)

(School Site Assessment Window will
vary)

California’s academic standards—the things we want students to know and be able to do—are designed so students graduate ready for college and a career. One way we measure their progress is through the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) assessments. Students across California in grades 3–8 and high school take these assessments each spring. These tests were created specifically to gauge each student’s performance in English language arts/literacy (ELA), mathematics, and science. These tests measure the skills called for by the academic standards, including the ability to write clearly, think critically, and solve problems.

Because CAASPP tests are given statewide, they provide an opportunity to measure the skills of all students against the same academic standards. Given online, the tests are computer-adaptive, allowing more precise measurement of individual skills.

This year, your child will take the following tests: Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments for ELA and mathematics.

Students in grades 5 and 8 will also take the California Science Test. California’s new state standards for science call for students to think and work like scientists and engineers—asking questions and learning through hands-on investigation and discovery. Working with science teachers, California is developing a new assessment that emphasizes scientific thinking and reasoning. This year your child will participate in the tryout of test items for this future assessment. While this tryout will not provide scores for you child, it is an important first step in developing an assessment that will fairly and accurately measure how students are achieving on the new science standards. For additional information about the new science tests and sample questions, please visit the CDE’s CAASPP Science Assessment Web page.

The Smarter Balanced ELA and mathematics tests reflect California’s rigorous academic standards and allow students to demonstrate analytical writing and critical thinking skills as well as their knowledge of facts.

To learn more about these tests, please visit CDE’s Test Score Guide Web site, which provides informative guides and test score descriptions as well as sample test items at different levels of difficulty.

California Alternate Assessments (CAAs)

Students in
grades three through eight and grade eleven who have an IEP that designates the
use of an alternate assessment are eligible to take the
California Alternate Assessments (CAAs) in lieu of the Smarter Balanced
Summative Assessments for ELA and mathematics. The goal of the CAAs is to
ensure that students with significant cognitive disabilities attain
increasingly higher achievement levels and leave high school ready for academic
or career options.
The test
items are aligned with the Common Core State Standards for ELA and mathematics
and are based on the Core Content Connectors, which were developed with three
tiers of complexity.
The CCCs identify
priorities in each content area to guide the instruction for students in this
population and for the alternate assessment.

Pursuant to Education Code Section 60615, parents have the right to exempt their child from statewide assessments. If you have any questions regarding your child’s participation in statewide assessments, please contact your child’s school.

The Physical
Fitness Test (PFT) is part of the state testing program. California has chosen
the FITNESSGRAM® as the annual PFT for students in public
schools. The FITNESSGRAM® is a comprehensive health-related
fitness test developed by The Cooper Institute.

More information
about the Physical Fitness Test can be found on the California Department of
Education Physical Fitness Test Web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/pf/.

Project Cornerstone

Project Cornerstone is a Santa Clara County initiative that is based on the research of Search Institute on the 40 developmental assets, or building blocks, that all children and youth need to succeed. Project Cornerstone programs such as ABC Parents and Los Dichos seek to strengthen families, neighborhoods, communities, and schools. Project Cornerstone works with Evergreen School District to provide training in developmental assets to parents, teachers, administrators and students alike.

Physical Education

Annual Notice of Physical Education Requirements

Evergreen School District strives to provide the
highest quality educational experience we can envision for our students. Included in that experience is Physical
Education. California Education Code
governs how much physical education is taught in each classroom. As per California Education Code 51210 (g),
first through sixth grade teachers are required to teach 200 minutes of
physical education over 10 instructional days.
It is at the discretion of the classroom teacher as to how and when
these minutes are distributed over this time frame.

We are providing this notice to inform
parents/guardians of this information. If you have questions regarding physical
education minutes you should first contact your child’s teacher or
principal. If there are further
questions or information that the school was unable to answer, you may contact
Dan Deguara, Assistant Superintendent.

If there is an interest in filing a formal
complaint with the district regarding physical education minutes of
instruction, parents may use Evergreen School District’s general
Uniform
Complaint Procedure
process.

We in Evergreen School District encourage a
well-rounded educational experience, and physical education is a strong
component of that experience.